Ultra Star Scott Jurek on Weather Channel Show Sunday

Effects of heat running demonstrated on "Freaks of Nature."

The Weather Channel loves to play up meteorological extremes, so it makes sense that on Sunday night they'll focus on hot-weather running and one of its most successful practitioners, ultramarathoner Scott Jurek.

Jurek will be featured in an episode of "Freaks of Nature," a show in which host Tyler Harcott "is on a quest to find a new breed of people who claim to have found a way to harness the forces of nature, making them different from everyone else on earth," according to the show's site. Two-time Badwater Ultramarathon winner Jurek has probably never made such a claim for himself, but whatever. He's obviously really good at running in the heat if he's twice won a 135-mile race that starts in Death Valley.

The episode includes footage taped in Death Valley in May, when temperatures were in the relatively benign 90s. As The Missoulian reports, that wasn't extreme enough for the show's purposes, so additional taping took place at a sport science lab at the University of Montana.

There, Jurek ran in a heat chamber for an hour. The initial temperature was set at what they'd encountered in Death Valley, but was gradually increased to 135, at which point both the chamber and Jurek began to suffer unduly–an electrical fuse was about to trip, and Jurek's core temperature reached 104. The run was ended.

What happened to Jurek's heart rate, pace and other physiological parameters, and how those measurements compare to what a normal person would experience in similar conditions, will be revealed on Sunday's episode, which airs at 10 p.m. Eastern.